Seven States To Raise Minimum Wage For 2011

Approximately 647,000 minimum wage workers across the country will be ringing in this new year with a modest pay raise, as Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington are set to increase their minimum wages by nine to twelve cents on January 1. All seven of these states will have minimum wages above the federal level, which is currently $7.25 an hour, but Washington will have the highest at $8.67.

The salary boosts will provide essential help to workers who struggle to to keep up with the rising costs of living on an average minimum wage salary of about $15,000 a year. The increases may also boost the economy, since job gains in the wake of the recession seem to be disproportionately concentrate in low- and mid-wage industries such as food services, retail, manufacturing, and administrative and wastes services.

Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, pointed out that another benefit of raising the minimum wage is that those workers are the most likely to cycle their money back into the economy, since many of them can't afford to save it.

"In addition to helping working families in the states make ends meet, raising wages for the lowest-paid workers will help sustain consumer spending and spur economic recovery.  Minimum wage increases go directly to workers who spend them immediately - because they have to - on basic necessities like food, gas, rent and clothing," she said.

According to two recent studies cited by NELP, modest minimum wage increases do not cost people jobs. Economists compared employment levels between 1990 and 2006 in each pair of U.S. counties that straddles the border of two states with different minimum wage levels, and they found that the counties with higher minimum wages did not have higher unemployment than the others.

Nearly 3.6 million workers are paid wages at or below the federal minimum, making up 4.9 percent of all hourly-paid workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Three quarters of minimum wage earners are 20 years or older, and more than 60 percent are women.

"These small increases mean that thousands of minimum wage earners like health aides, child care workers, restaurant workers and retail clerks will be better able to put food on the table, provide for their children, and keep a roof over their head," Owens said. "Congress and other states should follow this smart policy of indexing the minimum wage to keep pace with the rising cost of living."

Comments

[Vieux Charles]

03:15 PM on 01/01/2011

John Stossel - The Minimum Wage Doesn't Work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lblNgYe_1f8

[DrObvious]

06:35 PM on 01/10/2011

Dr Obvious declares John Stossel's assertion as nonsense.

[monstermash9]

07:42 AM on 01/11/2011

Yes. I'm sure his degree in psychology prepared him well for macroeconomics.

[lovbug]

08:47 PM on 12/22/2010

We need an uprising. Hard working Americans need to start taking their power back. Get your entrepreneur hustling on, carve out your own niche and tell these corporations to take their low paying jobs and shove it or go across the border and find someone else to do it. When things start falling apart, you will see how fast their head spin.

[Fire Krotch]

03:22 PM on 12/22/2010

It never ceases to amaze me that conservatives always argue that if you get educated, you wouldn't need a low-paying job. The actuality is that if everyone had PhDs, there'd be PhDs working for minimum wage, it'd be like a game of musical chairs (kinda like the way it is now). And what about the persons that have diminished capacity, but are able to work. Should they be paid a liveable wage? Of course they should. Shame on you Teahadi Hatriots!!

[Samcat604]

06:00 PM on 12/22/2010

No, that is not true. All kinds of people are needed to do all kinds of work. Plumbers, Engineers, Technicians are all needed. Some form of training is expected for each one. Some are PhDs, some are specialized training programs, and some are training that is done on the job.

Every person should be asked to contribute to society. If they are mentally or physically unable, that is another story. But this principle should apply to everyone else. Period.

What Conservatives object to is the idea that EVERY job should be considered worthy of the highest wages. Flipping burgers at McDonald's does not constitute a career. Mind-numbingly screwing a bolt into a widget 5000 times a day is not special. Basically, if the job could be done by someone after school, it is just that, a job. Not a career. Not a job that should be expected to support a family.

Artificially forcing higher wages is just that, artificial. It artificially increase the cost of labor, which artificially raises prices, which makes the artificial wage too low. Than that artificial wage will not seen to be enough and wages have to be artificially adjusted up again, continuing the cycle.

[Fire Krotch]

06:36 PM on 12/22/2010

Ok, so where is the line drawn to where a job should feed your kids or not?

[Fire Krotch]

06:39 PM on 12/22/2010

And... It really should be that if you open a business, you pay your employees enough to support their families. If you can't do that and stay in business, then it appears that you did not start a viable business in the first place, period. Liveable wages are a cost of doing business!!

[Samcat604]

02:52 PM on 12/22/2010

Jobs should not be paying a living wage.

Careers should pay a living wage.

Oh wait. They already do.

[Connie Concepcion]

02:26 PM on 12/22/2010

Actually, when accounting for cost of living increases, inflation, and taxes, the national minimum wage should be about $17/hour. This is achievable, but only if we stop giving our money away to the oligarchs that are running the country into the toilet and the rest of the corporate/military industrial complex that sucks the life of the country and its citizens dry, leaving nothing ftheing we really need to be be a democracy.

[InStl]

03:09 PM on 12/22/2010

Do you think that you small businesses such as convenience stores, fast food, retailers, banks, etc. would be able to pay $17/hr without raising the price of their goods or services proportionately? Would that not hurt the rest of us and not make the minimum wage earners any better off?

[Cmyst82]

01:21 PM on 12/22/2010

Still doesn't address the problem that there are adults without the skills to qualify for anything other than entry level (minimum wage) positions. Still doesn't address that, overall, wages have stagnated for those making more than the minimum. The obvious consequences will be sure to follow (youth unemployment, redistribution of funds that could go towards other aspects of the business, a spike in the price of the goods/services by that business, etc). Pretty much the same results that we get everytime this happens.

[Samcat604]

02:52 PM on 12/22/2010

Training programs are available anywhere you look.

[DrObvious]

06:37 PM on 01/10/2011

sure.   and how do you pay for food shelter and clothing without income, while getting that training ... which, by the way, won't mean you get a job right away after completion .....?

[mnnyer]

01:18 PM on 12/22/2010

Read Nickeled and Dimed in America, and then talk about living off minimum wages. It is impossible to exist on the minimum wage.

[DrObvious]

06:38 PM on 01/10/2011

nearly 5 million do get by.   but no one envies what they must endure to get through each day

[ScapeGoat]

12:59 PM on 12/22/2010

It has been shown that when a state increases the minimum wage, that here is an increase in economic activity. This is because putting money in the hands of the lowest paid gives them more to spend which increases demand which stimulates the economy.

[Terry L Dawson]

11:47 AM on 12/22/2010

I am moving!

[fortressfountain]

10:59 AM on 12/22/2010

This bill needs to go further. It needs to guarantee people a 40 hour work week, raises yearly, paid health care and vacations.
They seem to manage this for the executives whos only job is to cut hours and benefits for the workers.
The bottom line is they will have to pay people if they want them to purchase the slop made in china.

[MitchBetterHaveMyBunny]

12:55 PM on 12/22/2010

all jobs legislated to be 40 hours? that's silly. I would love to see everyone receive health care and paid vacations, but health care costs cannot be forced solely upon employers in our current system... they are crippling (i am all for a tax funded, universal, free healthcare system, fyi.) And executives, while perhaps hugely overpaid in some cases, do have other responsibilities besides cutting hours and benefits of employees. That's just hyperbolic drivel.

[ScapeGoat]

12:57 PM on 12/22/2010

Should be on a federal level.

[RogerKlotz]

10:51 AM on 12/22/2010

It appears that these states want to perpetuate the high level of youth unemployment.. I'm glad my state isn't on this list..

[Terry L Dawson]

11:47 AM on 12/22/2010

Explain please!

[MitchBetterHaveMyBunny]

01:04 PM on 12/22/2010

He's insinuating that high minimum wages make it harder for youth to find afterschool/ summer employment. There's probably a slight correlation there, but it's hardly a reason to never raise the minimum wage.

[NoWMDs]

02:55 PM on 12/22/2010

If businesses can't find a way to absorb such a paltry increase for the betterment of their employees, they should not be in business.

[ggmome]

10:46 AM on 12/22/2010

Enough to raise income, so that eligibility for SNAP or Food Stamps won't be met.

[Valerie Buchanan]

11:24 PM on 01/10/2011

Some states consider more than just your income when approving or disapproving food stamps. Even though my personal income is way below poverty level ($1,034.00 a month) I cannot qualify for food stamps because I (me and the bank) own my home and I outright own my (a beater) car. If I rented and still had a car payment, I could have qualified for $194.00 a month in food stamps.

[red clavier]

10:14 AM on 12/22/2010

Minimum wage should be whatever employers are willing to pay and employees are willing to work for.
If minimum wage were still 2 dollars an hour would people still work for that? Of course not. Because the market has determined that is unreasonable.
If minimum wage is an arbitrary number set by politicians, why stop at 8,9, or 10 ten dollars an hour?
Set minimum wage at 15 to 20 dollars an hour for a real "living wage".
Businesses could either fold or adjust their prices.
Who cares if a hamburger cost 15 dollars or a pizza cost 30 dollars.
Its all about the working man, man.

[thekid360]

11:31 AM on 12/22/2010

Agreed there should be a living wage instead of a minimum wage. The $15,000 represent a worker working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks a year with no time off . And after you deduct for taxes, FICA,SDI etc, that number shrinks pretty quick.The minimum was raised once during the Bush administration and if I am correct it was only did when the republicans wanted a tax cut or something. Very similar to the recent bill, tax cuts for unemployment benefits, most sensible people call it blackmail,the republicans call it bipartisan.

The article also referenced 3.6 million people making below the minimum wage. Most of these workers are in the service industry, waiters and bussers Because they work in places that have a so called "tip credit",this credit assumes everyone who eats out leaves a tip. Far from reality.The food service industry has the most aggressive lobby when it comes to opposing raising the minimum wage and providing health care for their employees.

Another trick this industry does is playing worker against each other by dividing the automatic service charge that is added to a check for parties of 6 or more. They give some of that money to cooks and dishwashers. By doing this ,employers do not have to raise the salaries of cooks and dishwashers This money comes from customers,and not from sales,therefore saving the owner even more money .The republicans would call this the free market, I call it "poverty pimping"

[Monk2001]

12:59 PM on 12/22/2010

You must think we live in a actual non monopolized capitalistic free market. How sorely mistaken you are.

[Dominick Roffo]

10:07 AM on 12/22/2010

Corporations or big companies have been abusing workers for over a century. Because of their abuses, we had labor unions formed, and the minimum wage enacted. Without them, we'd be almost slave labor. Factory workers and truck drivers were the most abused.

[Silence DoGoodeagle]

11:30 AM on 12/22/2010

Employers need workers - regardless of unions. It is today's government unions that are bankrupting the country.

[MitchBetterHaveMyBunny]

01:08 PM on 12/22/2010

for over a century? as if there was a period before 1900 when all workers were fairly treated and well compensated?

[Dominick Roffo]

01:23 PM on 12/22/2010

OK....if you want to be picky...I said over a century so go far back as you want....I was mainly talkng of the industrial age....anything else you wanna nitpick?

[just sayin]

10:03 AM on 12/22/2010

Ohio, which is bleeding off jobs and population at an alarming rate, is raising the minimum wage? Good luck with that.

[Rightlygay]

11:05 AM on 12/22/2010

This is why in Ohio so many employers are willing to "pay under the table." Pay $7/hr cash with no petty deductions...Its a win/win for both......since these are mostly entry level or retiree jobs....the lack of contributing to soc. sec., medicaid, etc....isnt a problem........this is the future of employment.....